


Queen Or Worker?

by Sodokachi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, More tags to be added most likely, a little bit of action, a little bit of romance, chloe week, should be fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-14 09:19:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14766843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sodokachi/pseuds/Sodokachi
Summary: The first test is only the first hurdle of many for the heir apparent of Paris. Will she rise to the top or crash to the bottom?





	1. Day 1: Golden

“Ugh!” Chloe repeatedly kicked the elevator door in frustration. “Why! Won’t! You! Open!?” she punctuated each word with another kick. After the last word she stopped, panting slightly, and glared at the door.

Nathaniel watched warily from as far away as he could, which happened to be only a couple feet to her side. The elevator was small, probably owing to the fact that the old building the class had been taken on a field trip too had just as old elevators. He was supposed to be studying the sculpture here and using them for inspiration, instead he was stuck with Chloe in an elevator. Could today get any worse?

Chloe turned towards him, glare at the ready. “Well?”

Nathaniel blinked in confusion. “Well what?”

“Did they text you back yet, genius?” she asked sarcastically.

He slowly nodded in sudden understanding and quickly pulled out his phone to check. Before Chloe had started her tirade against elevators and doors he had tried several times to call their teacher, before giving up and texting instead.

“No text back yet, although it says it went through,” he grimaced, he really didn’t want to be trapped here any longer than necessary. At least he and Chloe had that in common.

Chloe slumped against the opposite wall, thankfully keeping space between them, although it was still only a couple feet, and lost a lot of her steam if her tired sigh was any indication.

“So, then...” he shifted awkwardly. “How’s the whole, _being Chloe_ , thing working out for you?”

She looked up from the floor. “It’s going well, thank you very much. How’s being weird?”

He looked closely at her. He had expected her to be angry, but instead she was strangely conversational. “It’s going really well, I’ve made a lot of friends this year.”

She glared to the side. “At least that makes one of us,” she mumbled under her breath.

Things went silent for a while after that and he couldn’t help but feel awkward. He kept glancing at her, trying to understand why she acting so different than what he was used to. When he glanced at her the next time she was looking at him and they both immediately looked away from each other.

His phone buzzing was the only thing that stopped things from becoming even more awkward. He glanced at it and sighed in relief.

“Well?”

“They said that it was an accidental shutdown and it should only take a couple more minutes to get it fixed,” he smiled. “Marinette noticed that we’d disappeared and contacted building security.”

Chloe blew a hair out of the way. “Of course she did.”

“If she hadn’t noticed we would be stuck a lot longer,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” she agreed reluctantly. “Sorry.”

He stared at her.

“What?” she shifted.

“You never apologize.”

“Well, I just did,” she huffed. “So, there.”

He continued watching her for a moment. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and her hair was in disarray from her flipping out on the door earlier. Even her make-up was smudged a little. She looked…

“While I’m being so nice, I guess I’ll apologize to you as well,” she looked away from him and took a deep breath. “I’ve been a jerk in the past and I’m sorry,” she closed her eyes tightly.

“Apology accepted.”

Her eyes snapped open. “What? I mean, of course you accept it! You’re getting an apology from _the_ Chloe Bourgeois,” she smiled haughtily.

Nathaniel nodded in agreement. “It’s a true honor.”

The door to the elevator suddenly opened with a loud clang, startling the two of them. The class was waiting for them on the other side and the cataphony of relieved voices made the two formerly trapped classmates smile.

A small man wearing a security uniform and a hat that covered most of his face spoke up from behind the class.

“Sorry, you two got trapped for so long. It was my mistake,” the man smiled apologetically.

As Chloe laid into him Nathaniel just shook his head. He could have sworn he’d seen that guy around before.

“Chloe,” he interrupted her tearing the man a new one. “Thanks for the company,” he said awkwardly.

She scoffed. “Whatever, if you want my company so badly you should be taking me to the movies, not this dump.”

Nathaniel felt his face heat up. “W-what? I don’t...”

The class watched with great interest and when Chloe realized they were watched she turned to glare at them.

“What are you all looking at?!”

Nathaniel relaxed as old arguments were started anew. He had no idea what to say to her, after all, why in the world would she assume he wanted to date her? ...And why was he not at all against it?

* * *

 

A few hours later and Chloe stumbled into her room with a scowl on her face. She was so done with her classmates and all of their ridiculous talk of elevators being romantic. The Eiffel Tower was romantic not some stupid dirty elevator.

She paused as she was using a cloth to remove her make-up. On her vanity sat a small box that she’d never seen before. The weirdest thing was that she hadn’t even asked her father for any jewelry recently.

She opened it and was shocked by a bright golden light shining in front of her. She didn’t move an inch, even after the light faded to leave only a strange (terrifyingly big) looking bee. Maybe if she didn’t move it wouldn’t sting her.

“Hello!” it chirped happily in greeting. “I’m-”

Chloe screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

“Please stop screaming!” Pollen pleaded. “I’m not here to hurt you!”

Chloe stopped screaming and the bee kwami smiled in relief. “Thank you. Now, as I was saying earlier, my name is-”

Chloe screamed again and Pollen realized the girl had only paused to breath. She looked around for something to stop the yelling and almost sighed when the idea hit her. She quickly darted into the dresser, disappearing from sight for a moment before returning through the front of it and flying to Chloe.

“You can thank Plagg for this,” Pollen said to the now silent, due to a sock, girl.

Chloe spat it out immediately while making disgusted noises. “Ugh! What are you and why are you so gross?!”

Pollen did her best to ignore Chloe’s words. “I am your Kwami!” she said cheerfully. “And my name is-”

“What’s a Wami?” Chloe asked, confused.

“Pollen,” Pollen smiled tightly. “My name is Pollen. With me and the Miraculous in that box you can help Ladybug and Chat Noir defend Paris.”

“What?! Are you telling me that Ladybug has a giant bee as well?” Chloe gasped. “And that I’m going to be her partner?”

Pollen looked at her curiously. “No, she has a Ladybug. I am glad you seem to have such a high opinion of Tikki’s chosen. That should make things easier.”

Chloe picked up golden bee comb from the box and looked at it closely. “Does it have to be so tacky?”

Pollen twitched. “You have quite the sting don’t you?”

“Oh well, how does this thing work?” she asked while trying to find the best place for it in her hair.

“It will transform you when you say the correct words, which I will tell you, _after_ I explain them to you and you make me a promise not to misuse them.”

Chloe slipped the middle of the comb into her ponytail and then nodded into her mirror in satisfaction. “Misuse them?”

A large crashing sound startled the two of them and they rushed onto the balcony to investigate. Once there they could see people running away from something, no doubt an akuma since Ladybug chose that moment to swing towards where everyone was running from.

Chloe turned towards Pollen and looked pleadingly at her.

“Very well, let's get you buzzing!”

Chloe practically beamed.

* * *

 

Chloe slumped down onto a park bench, still in her new bee supersuit, and grimaced as she picked out leaves from her hair.

“That could have gone better,” she mumbled.

“What could have gone better?”

She looked up in surprise to see Nathaniel standing awkwardly in front of her. He had on a hoodie and seeing it reminded her of how cold it was, causing her to shiver. He blinked and took it off. She felt confused by his strange actions and was only confused further when he held it out to her.

“You look cold,” he offered with a shrug.

She took it and slipped it around her shoulders before glancing back at him from under the too big hood. “...thanks,” she said as quietly as she could.

Nathaniel smiled and sat down next to her. “So, what happened?”

“Did I say you could sit down,” she grumbled, although there was no heat in her words. “They were suspicious of me and Ladybug was just… she wasn’t happy to see me at all,” she gripped the hoodie tightly. “They seemed really confused for some reason. That I had the Miraculous I mean.”

“I’m sure they’ll come around,” he fumbled a bit as he tried to find the right words. “You’re the princess of Paris after all, who wouldn’t want you on their team.”

Chloe’s lips twisted into a soft smirk. “More like queen,” she replied.

“Does that make me your loyal knight?” Nathaniel swung his arm in the air, mimicking a sword.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she grinned.


	3. Day 3: Favorite Ship

Chloe was sitting on her bed, phone in hand.

“Little bee, what are you doing?” Pollen rubbed her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

Chloe glanced over to her, her hair astray and bags starting to form under her eyes. “I got a message.”

Pollen floated over to her and looked at the illuminated screen curiously. “I don’t understand. How did you get paper to shine like this?”

Chloe made a face. “It’s a phone.”

Pollen fiddled with her paws. “I don’t know what that is?”

Chloe stared at her for a moment before turning back to her phone. “...Anyway, I got a message.”

Pollen sighed a little sigh. “Is it from someone important?”

“It’s from Nathaniel, so n-”

“Ooh, from your beau!” Pollen perked up. “What did he say?”

“He’s not, ugh,” Chloe pouted. “He just said it was nice to talk to me earlier today. And he added that he was up for talking more whenever. I mean, who does that? Just message someone out of the blue.”

“Is that not normal?”

“I don’t know!” Chloe frowned. “No one but Sabrina ever messages me, so I’m not sure what this means,” she paused. “...After all, when you’re as popular as I am, people are too scared to approach you.”

Pollen looked unsure. “Uh, well, I think he’s interested in you. Why else would he go out of his way like this?”

Chloe hummed. “I doubt it. I’ve been pretty horrible to him in the past,” she said matter of factly.

“He seems like a nice boy, though. I’m sure if you apologized to him he’d forgive you.”

Chloe huffed. “I already did,” she turned her face slightly away from Pollen and smiled. “And he did forgive me, I guess.”

Pollen practically buzzed as she shot in front of Chloe’s face. “You should craft a message back to thank him then! Don’t make him wait too long, he might lose interest!” she looked around. “Where is your ink and paper?”

“Thank him?” Chloe gently grabbed Pollen, as the Kwami looking like she was about to start searching the entire room for the aforementioned ink and paper. “I can just send him a message using my phone,” she yawned. “I am way too tired to explain how. So you’re just going to have to deal.”

Pollen surprisingly didn’t seem to mind being held, if the light buzzing said anything. “Okay. What should the message beeee?” she buzzed.

“Stop being so excited, it’s just Nath,” Chloe tried to admonish. “I think I’ll just go with thanks.”

“No, no! You have to make it memorable and romantic. Like, I really enjoyed the time we’re together, or, thank you, I really hope we can talk more soon.”

“Huh,” Chloe quickly typed into her phone and hit send. “I used the second one. It works.”

Pollen stared at her in surprise. “But, you didn’t even think about it...”

Chloe laid her head down onto her pillow and let Pollen go on it as well. “Yeah, but I’m tired,” she murmured. “And I trust you,” she said while her eyes slowly slid shut.

“Oh,” Pollen buzzed lightly. “That is so nice of you. I trust you too, Chloe. I’m glad you and I are becoming such a good team,” she smiled and waited for a response. Instead Chloe snored softly.

“Ah, you’re asleep,” she moved so that she was burrowed in curve of Chloe’s neck. “Goodnight, little bee. I will watch over the hive while you sleep.”


	4. Day 4: Friends

Sabrina sat on the steps of her home, a small apartment a couple of blocks from the school, staring at her phone. Usually by now Chloe would have texted her. They spent almost every Saturday together, but lately that had changed. She hadn’t hung out with her since the month before and Sabrina would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried about it.

It wasn’t like Chloe was ignoring her at school or anything. They still spent just as much time together there. So, there probably wasn’t anything actually wrong. But it was still odd how she hadn’t been hanging out with her as much.

Sabrina chewed her lip as she contemplated sending Chloe a message. She had already messaged her a bunch that week, and she really didn’t want to come off as a bother…

She hit send and hoped for the best.

Sabrina almost stumbled off the steps when Chloe immediately texted back with a message to meet her NOW. Once she had managed to catch her phone, just before it hit the sidewalk, she quickly replied in affirmative and grinned as she ran towards Chloe’s father’s hotel. Sometimes hoping for the best worked.

A couple minutes, a butler, and an elevator ride later and she was let into Chloe’s room to a sight she honestly couldn’t believe.

“Chloe?” Sabrina raised her hand. “Why is Nathaniel painting your wall?”

Chloe looked over to her from where she was “overseeing” his work. “Sabrina! Just in time,” she marched over and then pulled Sabrina by the arm until they were standing right in front of the wall. “Look at how amazing this is!”

“It is very pretty,” Sabrina admitted. “But that doesn’t explain anything, Chloe.”

Nathaniel sighed from where he was sitting on the floor. “I wouldn’t bother. She called me out of the blue and told me to paint her wall. I tried to get the why out of her, but...”

“Stop complaining, Nath,” Chloe waved her hand dismissively. “I let you have the honor of painting my wall, so ungrateful,” she smirked.

“My apologies, my queen,” Nathaniel said sarcastically. “Next time… well, I probably still won’t care.”

“You’re so rude!” Chloe laughed.

Sabrina looked between the two of them, completely lost.  “Wha? When, how?”

Nathaniel looked at her with concern. “You alright, Sabrina?”

“Yes, or no! When did you two become friends?”

Chloe looked boredly at her nails. “Like, three weeks ago?”

“Oh,” Sabrina nodded. “That makes a lot of sense.”

Nathaniel and Chloe glanced at each other. “What makes sense?” he asked.

Sabrina laughed awkwardly. “Nothing, nothing!” Sabrina glanced around. “Why did you chose that theme?” she quickly changed the subject.

“Uhh,” he glanced at the mirad of bees and flowers he’d painted all over the wall. “I like bees?”

Chloe quickly jumped in. “Bee’s are amazing!”

An awkward silence descended on the three of them until a knock on the door broke them out of it.

“We will be serving dinner soon, will your friends be staying?” Jean asked.

“Of course!” Chloe said immediately. “Make sure there is only the finest food, Jean.”

“Do we get a say in this?” Nathaniel asked dryly.

“I can see why Chloe is friends with you. Since you’re so funny,” Sabrina patted him on the shoulder.

“Hurry up you two,” Chloe called from the door. “I am not waiting any longer.”

“Or at all,” Nathaniel added. Sabrina giggled.

“I heard that!”

Nathaniel and Sabrina couldn’t hold it in at that and soon the three of them were laughing as Jean watched on with a smile.


	5. Day 5: Mirror, Mirror

Nathaniel stood nervously at the entrance to the Bourgeois hotel. He was wearing his best shirt (a pleasant collared and striped with green and white) and black slacks. He had no idea if it was good enough for a first date, no matter how much Sabrina assured him Chloe would love it.

“Mr. Kurtzberg, Ms. Chloe requires you in her room,” Jean interrupted his train of thought.

“Ah! Alright, sir,” he agreed, before being quickly shown to the elevator.

“Good luck,” Jean winking at him as the elevator doors closed.

Nathaniel gaped at him. “Good luck with what?”

He was too late with his question as the doors were already shut. That wink and Chloe almost assuredly meant something crazy. He didn’t have much more time to think about it since the elevator ride was short and soon the doors reopened. He would just have to hope it was crazy good instead of crazy bad.

He knocked on her door and sighed went she didn’t answer. She never did and the last time he had just waited outside she had yelled at him, so…

He took a deep breath and opened the door.

He entered the room with some trepidation. He could hear Chloe speaking, although he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. He moved in the direction of her voice and he was just able to hear what she was saying as she came into view.

“Magic Mirror, on the wall - who is the fairest one of all?” Chloe smirked at her reflection. She was clad in a yellow and black striped dress, and homage Nathaniel couldn’t help but appreciate, and was thankfully not looking at him at the moment. His face was without a doubt as red as his hair, and he was failing not to stare. He needed to make himself known before he did anything _too_ rude.

He cleared his throat to get her attention, and then spoke. “I believe that would be you, my queen.”

“Wha-?” Chloe’s cheeks darkened. “I mean, yes. I know!” she took in his outfit, eyes darting. “You look good,” she added quickly. “I think I’ll let you accompany me tonight.”

“I am truly honored,” he smiled and offered his arm.

She glanced down at it and then back up at him, before taking him up on his offer. “This is going to be fun.”

“With you, things are always fun,” he chuckled.

 


End file.
